Chester the Canadian Goose

Introducing Chester Chadwick Goosington

the VI 

(at least the VI)

JoAnn has taken to walking in one of our local cemeteries every day. It is calm, peaceful and flat. Sometimes I go with her, and this is where I was introduced to Chester the Canadian goose. Chester is a lonely sort of widower goose, who has lost his mate. He strangely is attracted to one particular grave marker, and as you can see he stands on it, lays on it, and peacefully rests beside it. He also likes to stand on the mausoleum rooftop to get a better view of things.

Chester only likes to come to the cemetery in the cool of the day, as he doesn't much care for heat it seems. Of course, he also is not keen on winter snow or ice either. So it takes a rather temperate day to find him hanging out at his regular venues. 

One day a girl goose came and tried to attract his attention. She tried EVERYTHING, but Chester was as cool as a cucumber. You see when Chester lost his mate, he lost his mate for life. So he ignored the whole show, and eventually she left him alone, just the way he likes it. Chester agrees with JoAnn and I that Pilot Butte Cemetery is just right for a beautiful, wonderful place to be alone and quiet. I do wonder though, just what it is that attracts him to that particular grave stone. He certainly has laid dibs on it!

Then Sings My Soul

This is exactly how I feel when I am outside in my yard and/or garden. Then sings my soul to Thee, O God, in praise for the works of Thine hands.

I have been outside off and on for the past three weeks, and it has felt so good. This bed has now popped up, and will be a mix of daffodils first, tulips second, and muscari (wild grape hyacinth) last. I can't wait! 

One thing we can do over here is grow large crocus, and they are in full bloom now and thank goodness for the colors, as the rest of Central Oregon is pretty well brown. But just working in the dirt, and cleaning away debris is fulfilling.

I have chosen a word this year to work on in my life. The word is 'authentic'. I want to be truly known, and truly know others. I want to be who God created me to be. It has helped me so much just to relax, and not worry what anyone else thinks or if they like me or not. My whole perspective is lighter and happier. I am an authentic flower gardener. It took me years of growing various vegetables to find this out, because everyone else thought vegetable gardening was 'serious' gardening. But now I have found my true delight, in growing beautiful flowers, and basically flowers only. It is hard here. People in the Willamette Valley or Treasure Valley would just laugh at what I call 'my garden'. But I don't care. Not anymore. It's what makes me happy and healthy and brings a little patch of beauty to our Central Oregon landscape. There are various ways of great beauty here: tall old growth cedars and ponderosa pines against a majestic blue sky, wildflowers along the Metolius River in June and a wide sky as far as the eye can see. But not so many flowers. And so I garden and go to sleep at night happy.

Dreaming in Central Oregon

FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

There are at least a couple of blooms out there to see. First crocuses.

But the rest of the garden beds look like this:

I just had to get out there and do something though, so I cleaned out two beds.

This one has a lot of spring flowering bulbs just coming up. (Stay posted)

I helped them by uncovering them to the sun, a good spring thing to do.

And this one is empty, ready for the dahlias we will plant in May.

Both beds were covered with pine needles, pine boughs, pine cones, pine cone skeletons and pine cone leaves in a thick layer. I think eating the cones has been the way our squirrels have survived the recent storms. Just wish they wouldn't throw their remains down on my garden!

Someday we will have green again and lovely blooms. Dreaming of spring over here in Central Oregon!

Remembering March 12, 1946

March 12, 1946... the day my parents were married. A newly returned Air Corp soldier from the Pacific Theater of WW II, married a shy high school graduate from Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, Washington.

This morning I grabbed a cup of coffee and a small tape recorder and tape and listened to my Dad tell about his war adventures and then meeting my mom and getting married on this day 73 years ago. It was great to have a 'visit' with Dad and hear his voice once again. They were both present, and together they said "March 12" and then Dad repeated 1946. A special day in our family for sure.

A quick update on our trip to the Willamette Valley. We had a great time reconnecting with family for sure, and remembering the life of a wonderful woman of God. But seeing spring blooms? No way. It was cold, raw and muddy. I did see a patch of daffodils where the stalks were above ground, but quite a ways from blooming. Guess Oregon spring is still mulling over making an entrance, while winter still has a firm grasp on things. The good thing is that we know it's coming. It has always come, and the signs of spring will once again show the hope of resurrection.

Came in Like a Lion, Going Out Like a Lamb?

 Well, March did come in like a lion, more like a pack of lions. We have lived here for over 30 years, and I have never seen such a late series of winter storms. Let me be clear, I LOVE snow. I can never usually get enough of it. But these last weeks, even I cringed to wake up to more grey gloomy skies letting go of yet more snow flakes.

 We have been in a frozen pocket of gray freezing fog for two weeks, plus the snow. Cold temperatures, that I think the lowest was 4 degrees, and the usual highs were under 20 degrees. We got an initial dump of 3 feet of snow at once, then it added up over days to 4 1/2 feet or so at our house. 

 Oh for childhood, when we had no responsibility for the snow, just the fun. People struggled all over town, to shovel or snow blow homes and businesses, and later to get snow off roofs and chip away ice dams. Let alone just drive anywhere. Schools were down all week and many businesses for at least two days or more. 

 Even I, snow lover that I am, got down and tired of all the struggle. The insurance man was out every day shoveling, and caught a bronchial bug that he tried to ignore, but managed to share with me. I think if this had happened in December, deep winter, like it's supposed to, it wouldn't have been quite so bad. But my daffies, tulips and crocuses had already broken ground and I was looking forward to a bit of spring bloom. Who knows when all this ice will melt and we will see ground again? 

 As I write this, at least the cold and fog have lifted, and we are seeing sunshine and blue skies. What a treasure that is. Hope once again for rebirth and springtime. We are also headed over the mountain pass (feet upon feet of snow) for a memorial service, and should see some blooms in the Willamette Valley. I snapped this photo two weeks ago, on the Oregon Coast, to reassure myself that spring blooms do still exist somewhere.

Here is to hoping that March goes out like a lamb!

Quirky, Beautiful and Amazing Critters

Last spring I posted some spring baby animal photos I had collected from Pinterest. I decided today to post some of my favorite winter animal scenes, collected from Pinterest as well. It is fun to see the critters out in the midst of a cold snowy winter in their natural environment. The photographers do such an amazing job of capturing these animals so close and quirky, fun and beautiful.

Enjoy!

All Things Cozy in Late Autumn

I love to find seasonal photos on Pinterest and save them. I put them on my computer screen as wall paper, and then rotate them every few minutes to enjoy the scenes. I thought I would share a few of my mid-to-end of Autumn photos. I can't give all the photographers credits here, but they are some creative and talented people. 

Where I grew up in Seattle, we had a whole street lined with gorgeous chestnut trees. This was the season to pick up the pods that had split open and gather the nuts. There is a brown hard shell, with the chestnuts inside. Then there is a papery covering. My mother used to roast them over a fire in our fireplace, with little x's carved into the skins just like the photo below. Those would curl up and be easier to peel off. The chestnut inside was so worth the efforts, as they have an amazing buttery goodness!

I think it would be SO fun to live on Punkin Blvd, don't you?

That's what it smells like when you scuffle through the dried fallen leaves on the ground.

Have a delightful week-end, celebrating Halloween, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and all things cozy in November.